Tournament Rules

General Rules

  1. We will follow Hockey Canada Rules and Hockey Alberta Regulations.
  2. Minimum Suspension Guidelines will follow the Hockey Alberta Regulations (Appendix IV – Minimum Suspensions).  Players and coaches may be subject to additional penalties by their own governing body.
  3. All decisions made by the officials on ice or by the Firestarter Tournament Committee are final.
  4. Teams will be responsible for any damages caused to hotels, dressing rooms, or arena facilities. Please leave the dressing rooms in the condition you find them.
  5. It is each team’s responsibility to ensure the dressing room doors are locked, it is recommended teams bring a padlock to lock their dressing room. The Firestarter Tournament and the facility are not responsible for lost or stolen items.
  6. For Sunday games, the tournament reserves the right to change the order of games to assist teams with travel plans. Teams will be notified Saturday evening of their play times for Sunday. If necessary, an update will also be posted on the Firestarter Tournament website.
  7. We will be using real-time electronic scoresheet input. With a short turnaround between games, coaches will not be asked to sign off on lineups before or after the game. Any requests for alterations to the scoresheet (i.e. assists), can only be made in between periods or within a 5 minute window after the game finishes. These requests must be made in person by a coach from the team; no requests from parents will be accepted.

Game Format

  1. Tournament will be a four-game guarantee, with elimination games among the top eight teams on Saturday and the 4 top-point teams playing in the Bronze and Gold finals on Sunday.
  2. All games consist of three, 20-minute stop time periods. Ice will be cleaned after the second period (AAA Tournament) and every period (AA Tournaments). Due to time restrictions, the national anthem will not be played before games.
  3. Five-minute warm up begins immediately following ice cleaning. At the conclusion of warm up, teams must line up immediately to play or risk a delay of game penalty.
  4. Designated home team will wear light-coloured jerseys and the visiting team will wear dark-coloured jerseys.
  5. Timeouts are allowed in Bronze and Gold games only; each team is allowed one 30-second time out.
  6. Coaches will select the Player of the Game for their team, announce this in the dressing room after the game and the player can pick up their award from the Welcome Desk at the front of the arena. The exception is the medal games on Sunday, when the Coaches will select the Player of the Game from the opposing team and the award will be made on the ice.

Overtime and Shootouts

Overtime will only be used to determine the winner of the Gold game.
    1. If tied at the end of regulation, will play five-minute stop time overtime, 3-on-3 plus goaltenders, sudden victory.
    2. If still tied, will proceed to a shootout.
Shootouts will only be used to determine the winner of the Bronze game and if necessary the Gold game, if still tied at the end of Overtime.
    1. Subject to ice permit limitations, games proceed directly to a shootout without changing ends of the ice.
    2. If tied at the end of regulation (Bronze game) / overtime (Gold game), each team will select three players for round one.
    3. Players serving penalties that do not expire prior to the end of regulation (Bronze game) / overtime (Gold game) will not be eligible to shoot in the shootout.
    4. The visiting team will shoot first, then teams will alternate shooters until a winning team is determined or until all three shooters from both teams have shot.
    5. If at the end of round one the score is still tied, each team will alternate one shooter each until a winner is declared.
    6. Players can only shoot once until all players on their bench have shot. This rule also applies to the first three shooters.

Standings Will Be Determined By

  • 3 Points for a Win
  • 1 Point for a Tie
  • 0 Points for a Loss

For the U18AAA Tournament 


    • Points will be calculated at the end of Friday’s games to determine games and opponents for Saturday’s games.
    • Aggregate tournament points will again be calculated among the winners of Saturday’s #1 vs. #2 games to determine the placement of those 4 winners in the Bronze and Gold games.

Tiebreakers

Two Teams Tied

    1. Head-to-Head Winner
    2. Number of wins
    3. Aggregate “goals for” minus “goals against” in round-robin play (and elimination games)
    4. Fewest total penalty minutes in round-robin play (and elimination games)
    5. Fewest total goals allowed
    6. Flip of a coin

For the U15AA Tournament only – Three or more teams tied (This tiebreaker is used to determine the seeding of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.):

    1. Most wins in all games
    2. If still tied, the team with the best goal average in all games would qualify. The goal average of a team is determined by dividing the total number of goals for by the total number of goals for and against. Example: Total goals for = 10, total goals against = 4, percentage = 10/14 = .714.  Note that a maximum of 7-goal difference per game will be used in the calculation of the game ratio.  This will be calculated from the actual “goals for” of the losing team in the particular game.
    3. If still tied the team with the fewest “goals against” in all the games played
    4. If still tied, the team with the most “goals for” in all the games played
    5. If still tied, the team with the least number of minutes in penalties in all games played
    6. If still tied, after all previous methods have been applied, the winner will be decided by a single toss of a coin. In a three coin toss, the odd team gains the highest position.

NOTE: Once a step in the three or more team tiebreaker establishes a ranking of a team(s), they assume that position, and the remaining teams go to the next step.  They do not go back to the “Two Team Tiebreaker”